Hweebe

I tend to agree Junky - I've been on multiple whale watch tours out of hervey bay and if this was real risk tour operators wouldn't want to be anywhere near the whales. Having said that the rules mean the operator has to shut the engines once whales get to a certain distance. The whales will often approach or are curious of the boat, but they move with precision always avoiding the boat. Now if the boat was moving whilst the whale is close and thats another story and I can see how crashes may occur. Especially if a boat is moving around unpredictably

So excluding the pesky jetskis & sailboats - QLD has 215,922 registered powered boats or 4.1% of QLD population (some lucky people may have multiple boats) so say 4%. Or 1 in 25 QLD'er have access to a boat for recreational purposes. This of course won't include unregistered tenders / tinnies under 6hp (Population (google) for QLD 5.185 million)

It's annoying the data isn't grouped by Local Government Areas or Regions. I truncated to the list at the risk of creating a massively long post SUBURB Count of _id MAREEBA 808 EMERALD 790 YEPPOON 611 MACKAY 235 ROCKHAMPTON CITY 80 WEST ROCKHAMPTON 74 MACKAY HARBOUR 65 ROCKHAMPTON 22 MACKAY NORTH 11 ROCKHAMPTON MAIL CENTRE PRIV 2 MACKAY SOUTH 1 MACKAY EAST 1 NORTH ROCKHAMPTON 1 MACKAY WEST 1 Grand Total 2702

Vessel registrations - Dataset - Open Data Portal | Queensland Government

Although if I combine Mercury and Mariner, Johnson and Suzuki the numbers are closer with Evinrude dropping down the order ENGINE_1_MAKE Count of _id YAMAHA 66216 MERCURY OR MARINER 59713 JOHNSON OR SUZUKI 35198 EVINRUDE 18457 TOHATSU 10208 HONDA 9365 MERCRUISER 4453 VOLVO 1750 VOLVO PENTA 885 CHEVROLET 880

By Engine 1 - Yamaha clearly dominant (I've excluded Jet Skis from these numbers now). ENGINE_1_MAKE Count of _id YAMAHA 66216 MERCURY 47744 EVINRUDE 18457 JOHNSON 17947 SUZUKI 17251 MARINER 11969 TOHATSU 10208 HONDA 9365 MERCRUISER 4453 VOLVO 1750

Top of the suburbs with registered vessels in QLD - Bowen out in front but the list is dominated by bayside suburbs in Brisbane SUBURB Count of _id BOWEN 1717 HOPE ISLAND 1696 RUNAWAY BAY 1687 AYR 1572 PARADISE POINT 1554 HELENSVALE 1545 CLEVELAND 1492 REDLAND BAY 1419 BANKSIA BEACH 1270 VICTORIA POINT 1207 SURFERS PARADISE 1174 BUDERIM 1151 CABOOLTURE 1137 BROADBEACH WATERS 1136 URANGAN 1101 KIRWAN 1069 THORNLANDS 1059 BIRKDALE 1059 UPPER COOMERA 1052 EMERALD 988 MARYBOROUGH 986 COOMERA 984 MORAYFIELD 983 NOOSAVILLE 949 BURPENGARY 947 TEWANTIN 943 PALM BEACH 938 SOUTHPORT 937 ANDERGROVE 921 CAPALABA 910 MAROOCHYDORE 886 MAREEBA 878 PELICAN WATERS 865 ALEXANDRA HILLS 834 NARANGBA 833 TANNUM SANDS 815 EDMONTON 811 DECEPTION BAY 809 WELLINGTON POINT 808 JACOBS WELL 801 CANNONVALE 793 NEWPORT 788 MERMAID WATERS 777 MORANBAH 759 WYNNUM 754 BONGAREE 746 GORDONVALE 742 HOME HILL 741 ORMEAU 728 SARINA 727

Guess what Brand sits at the top for most vessel registrations in QLD (2021): (who doesn't like Jet skis hahaha) Count of _id MAKE Grand Total QUINTREX 44478 STACER 17644 SEA DOO 14984 SEA JAY 13394 YAMAHA 10452 SAVAGE 9812 STESSL 9577 PRIVATE 7249 CLARK 6495 HAINES HUNTER 5907 STESSCO 5507 ALLY CRAFT BOATS 5298 BLUEFIN 4851 BROOKER 3858 HORIZON 3758 CRUISE CRAFT 3489 KAWASAKI 3428 ALLY CRAFT 2526 POLYCRAFT 2212 DE HAVILLAND 2191

Saw this old adage in real time on the weekend in the Rous channel about 20 boats anchored up in the same area whilst only ~4 or 5 boats landing the majority of the Mackerel meanwhile i struggle to pull in a couple before they bagged out around 10:30am. Me and the misso looking at each other and saying - only way they bagged out that early was they were there and fishing before the sun was even out (and before I was even out of bed). As much as I love fishing, the thought of getting out of bed at 3am after a long week at work doesn't excite me. It was still good seeing people pull in the mackerel though, If I'm not catching I still like to see other people around pulling them in. As proof that its me and not the area that i'm fishing has no fish LOL

Wait until Christmas - Normally see a few Stella's go for a good price on Gumtree or Marketplace as "unwanted gifts" brand new. I always wonder in what circles do people gift Stella's, I'm obviously not in those circles

For every forum ever: There are no facts, just interpretations.

Looks and sounds like an epic Fraser trip. I'll be up there for a week in early October for some camping. When did you find the fish were most on the chew?

This is me as well. I'm not good with looking after my gear and certainly if you get a Stellar you will need to commit time to keeping always clean after a fishing sesh. I'm ok when i'm fishing from home base and doing the post fishing sesh cleanup in the mancave, but when i'm out on location its usually the last thing I want to do

If i was a Rec fisho in WA and this was passed - there would be no reason for owning and maintaining a boat / trailer to only fish 3-4 months a year. (even less when taking our poor weather days)

Those whiting fillets would go a treat for a fresh feed. You definitely have honed in over the years of experience for when and where the fish are. Do you keep a fish diary or do you keep it all in the noggin?

Thanks @christophagus and @Old Scaley The trip will be all about fishing so cheap and cheerful suits me fine. The other half though may prefer the Ramada. I’ve stayed there for work but didn’t realise there was good car parking suitable for a trailer thanks for the tip.

Hi AFOers, Planning a Hervey Bay trip in the new year. I've stayed at Boat Harbour Resort - Hervey Bay last time which was pretty good. Any other recommendations from those that have towed a trailer boat up. Ideally with onsite trailer boat parking (off street) and close to the accommodation / room itself (I know I'm a bit precious about where i park the boat and all the gear on board) Thanks

I find that a luring specific rod and the taper can still be used for bait fishing (within the lure weight limits) However a bait fishing specific rod doesn't have the right rod tip action taper to work a lure. So to answer your question - Yes it can be used for bait fishing.

Some solid flatties there on some reasonably light line too. Do you find running the lighter leader helps?

Did you high stick the rod? Some graphite rods need to load up evenly through the shaft and can be fickle with uneven load. Is the rod salvageable? Did you break it at the top tip only?

Some healthy looking specimens, and one that is a little worse for wear.

Anyone use sea water for their ice blocks? That's something i started doing with 2L containers for longer camping sessions and found it to quite a good / cheap hack. Just takes a few days longer to get the ice blocks frozen / cured

How good and on your own made lure that you can start testing, refining and experiment with what's working and the conditions they work in

@AUS-BNE-FISHO what about always having a heavy / shark rod setup whilst you are targeting other fish. I think at your local you are always a chance of a shark for some fun (if you can call it that). This will keep it interesting in between hits / bites on other fish.